Sec Rice on NBC's Today Show With Meredith Vieira

Secretary Condoleezza Rice
Washington, DC
September 12, 2007

Interview on NBC's Today Show With Meredith Vieira

QUESTION: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is one of the architects of America's policy on Iraq. Madame Secretary, good morning to you.

SECRETARY RICE: Good morning.

QUESTION: Let's get right to it. Yesterday, Senator John Warner asked General Petraeus whether the war in Iraq is making us any safer and the General responded, "I don't know." What should the American public take from that if the commanding general in Iraq doesn't know if the war there is making us any safer?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the war in Iraq, when we are successful there, will make a more stable Iraq and that will make a more stable Middle East. And clearly --

QUESTION: But that hasn't worked yet.

SECRETARY RICE: Clearly, a stable Middle East will make America safer. Now yes, we are at the beginning of a transition in the Middle East. We are at a beginning of a long process of dealing with what the President called a long time ago a generational challenge to our security brought on by extremism coming principally out of the Middle East. But the United States, if it is able, as it will be able to create a different kind of circumstance in the Middle East, will be safer.

QUESTION: But let's talk about that progress, because when the President announced the surge back in January, he said the goal was to allow the Maliki government some breathing space so that it could stabilize itself and there could be reconciliation. Well, we look at it now. I'm quoting now from the -- let me see, I'm sorry here, I'm missing my place -- from the General Accountability Office. It's calling the Maliki government dysfunctional. I wanted to get that correct, dysfunctional. Even our Ambassador is Iraq is saying that's correct. So what's the purpose of the military surge if we still have dysfunction on the ground?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, first of all, I think both General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker made very clear yesterday that there have been security improvements in Iraq. Secondly, I hope we won't lose the forest for the trees here. Yes, we would like to --

QUESTION: But very little -- very little --

SECRETARY RICE: Meredith, Meredith, you asked me a question.

QUESTION: Okay.

SECRETARY RICE: Now the issue is clearly, the Iraqi Government needs to make more gains at the national level in reconciliation in the passage of laws. But certainly, you wouldn't want to ignore what has happened in Anbar. This was once the epicenter of al-Qaida activity. It was once a place in which we faced a roaring Sunni insurgency. It is now a place where Sunni local leaders have come together to join with coalition forces to defeat al-Qaida there and to begin a political process of reconciliation of Sunnis with a new Iraq. You certainly wouldn't want to ignore that.

You wouldn't want to ignore the security gains in Baghdad neighborhoods where American forces working with Iraqi security forces are making it safer for Iraqis. Yes, there's still work to be done, but I would hope that people would recognize that while the government has not passed the laws that we had hoped that they would pass, they are including -- they are beginning to get resources out to the provinces through better budget execution. There are security improvements. Local leaders are taking back their streets from al-Qaida. Those are changes and that's progress that just simply can't be ignored. It can't be talked away.

QUESTION: General Petraeus has said that he needs six more months, he's looking for six more months. What do you hope to accomplish in those six months?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, the General made very clear that we have still hard work to do in Baghdad neighborhoods. Clearly, in places like Anbar, where there are now local security forces that are quite capable and have really routed al-Qaida, there will be a process of training and turning over those responsibilities to Iraqis.

I think what we need to look at is that the way ahead here is to solidify the gains that we have made, to extend those gains, to begin to turn over responsibilities for a changed and better security circumstance to Iraqi forces who are being trained, and to begin to have American forces in lower numbers turn to other responsibilities, which, frankly, like a stable Iraq, are very key to our interests including securing the territorial integrity of Iraq.

Iraq has very troublesome neighbors, one Matt Lauer is about to visit. Iran is a very troublesome neighbor and I would note that President Ahmadi-Nejad said that if the United States leaves Iraq, Iran is prepared to fill the vaccum. That is what is at stake here.

QUESTION: And what are we prepared to do? What are we prepared to do if Iran does that?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, what we're prepared to do is to complete the security gains that we've been making, to create circumstances in which an Iraqi Government and local officials can find political accommodation, as they are doing in Anbar, and to be able then, from Iraq, with allies in the war on terror, to resist both terrorism and Iranian aggression.

QUESTION: All right. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, thank you so much for your time this morning.

SECRETARY RICE: Thank you.

ENDS

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